Stories for March 2016

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that the Fed still envisions a gradual pace of interest rate increases in light of global pressures that could weigh on the economy. Yellen did not specify a timetable for further hikes to follow the Fed's rate increase in December from record lows. She said the risks to the United States remain limited but cautions that assessment is subject to “considerable uncertainty.”

The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled on Tuesday in favor of Argentina in a series of complaints the country filed with the international body, challenging punitive duties by the European Union on its biodiesel imports. The WTO, however, said the EU was not violating its rules.

Argentine extreme-south Tierra del Fuego province government unions blocking the main national highway to the capital Ushuaia decided to lift pickets, but agreed to continue with the several weeks occupation of the provincial government house in demand for the elimination of recently approved reforms to the pensions scheme.

A anticipated Brazil's largest party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, PMDB, announced on Tuesday it was leaving President Dilma Rousseff's governing coalition and pulling its members from her government, a departure that raises the odds she could be impeached in a matter of months.

A statement released earlier this afternoon from the Falkland Islands Government regarding the UN announcement of the extension of the Argentine continental shelf states that the announcement makes “no adjudication on the sovereignty of the Falkland Island and has no implications for the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands”.

The Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) filed a request on Monday to impeach President Dilma Rousseff for obstructing justice, fiscal accounting tricks and granting international soccer body FIFA tax-exempt status during the 2014 World Cup.

Argentina's government is pulling out from its involvement in the Spanish-language TV network that was started by the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, saying the broadcaster blocks alternative viewpoints.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino who on Tuesday will be in Uruguay, gave tentative backing to a joint World Cup bid by Argentina and Uruguay on Monday, suggesting the history of the two South American nations made them serious candidates to host the tournament in 2030.

Lawmaker from president Mauricio Macri ruling “Let's Change” group, Eduardo Amadeo, celebrated the UN recognition of Argentina's continental shelf extension presentation which means a strong support in the Malvinas Islands' sovereignty dispute with the UK, but also increased the country's territory by at least 35%.

The Falkland Islands Government, FIG, reacted to the Tuesday official Argentine announcement of its extension of the continental shelf saying it was waiting clarification from the UK government on the implications, if any for the Islands. What is certain is that it does not affect fisheries or squid catches, one of the Islands main source of income.